1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system and in particular an information processing system having a plurality of data input devices.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Computerised speech recognition may be achieved by matching a sound pattern of a spoken word with one or more sound patterns or models stored in a speech recognition unit. The principles of sound pattern matching are described in a paper written by J. S. Bridle et al. in The Radio and Electronic Engineer, Volume 53, No. 4. pp. 167-175, April 1983 and in Chapter 7 of a book entitled "Speech Synthesis and Recognition", written by J. N. Holmes and published by Van Nostrand Reinhold in 1988. ISBN 0-278-00013-4.
It is known to describe a spoken word by a series of feature vectors. Each sound, or phoneme, comprising the word may be divided into a number of time frames over which that sound occurred. In each time frame, the sound energy in each of a number of frequency bands may be measured. The information so obtained may be represented as a multi-dimensional vector, with each dimension being one of the frequency bands. This vector is the feature vector, each of which represents a time-slice of the spoken word.
A currently available speech recognition system for a standard computer system is the Marconi Speech Systems MR8 speech recogniser which is interfaced to a host computer via an RS232 serial port. Software is provided to take output from the recogniser and mimic keyboard input to other applications running on the computer. Speech recognition systems conventionally show a time delay between a word, or series of words, being spoken and a token corresponding to the recognised word being output by the recogniser. A computer system which receives data both from a speech recogniser and a keyboard may suffer from the disadvantage that when spoken input occurs before keyboard input, the time delay between the words being spoken and being recognised may result in the keyboard entries being received and acted upon by the computer before the tokens from the recogniser are received.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved information processing system.
The present invention provides an information processing system comprising:
(a) a plurality of data input means for receiving data in a data input sequence and for generating data elements in response thereto, at least one of the data input means being means for receiving acoustic data; and PA1 (b) processing means for receiving the data elements from the data input means and for outputting processed data in a data output sequence; PA1 (i) the system includes means for associating each data element with at least one respective sequence indicator; and PA1 (ii) the processing means includes means for determining the output sequence from each data element's at least one sequence indicator such that the data output sequence is in correspondence with the data input sequence irrespective of differing processing means delays for data elements generated by differing input means. PA1 a) receiving data elements in a data input sequence from a plurality of input sources, at least one of which provides data elements of spoken origin; PA1 b) associating a sequence indicator with each respective received data element; PA1 c) generating tokens to represent data elements of spoken origin by matching each spoken origin data element to a model; and PA1 d) establishing a data output sequence for processed data elements sequence such that the data output sequence corresponds to the data input sequence irrespective of differential processing delays by comparing sequence indicators of data elements from the plurality of sources. PA1 (a) a plurality of data input means arranged to provide data elements in a data input sequence, and PA1 (b) processing means arranged to receive the data elements and to produce output of processed data elements in an output sequence in correspondence with the data input sequence, PA1 (a) processing means (24,24) for generating control signals; and PA1 (b) a plurality of data input means (26,28,30) for receiving input data and for providing the processing means (24,25) with input data signals in response thereto; PA1 (i) means for attaching to each input data signal a marker signal showing the relative time at which the input data represented by the input data signal was received; and PA1 (ii) means for ordering the control signals whereby the control signals are arranged in an order which corresponds with the order in which the data input signals resulting in the respective control signals were received by the system.
characterized in that
The invention provides the advantage that data from a plurality of sources is provided in order of original input, irrespective of unequal delays introduced during the subsequent data processing. This is particularly beneficial for an information processing system having speech and non-speech inputs.
The speech recognition system may determine feature vectors from spoken input and from these feature vectors determine tokens corresponding to recognised words or phrases. In a preferred embodiment, the system includes means for receiving spoken data input and for determining feature vectors from the spoken data input and the data processor provides means for determining recognised tokens dependent upon the spoken data input.